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Black and white photograph. Group portrait. Issei (Japanese immigrant) participants in a competition of shigin (singing of Chinese poems). This event marked the farewell performance of a shigin master from Japan, seated at the center of the front row. The group is posed in six rows, seated and standing on the stage of the Seattle Buddhist Church. All are formally dressed and wear flowers or badges. A few, including the shigin master and the woman to his right, wear Japanese kimono. Shigin, the singing of Chinese-language poems, was an art practiced by the scholarly elite of Japan. It was brought to the U.S. by the Issei, but not carried on by later generations in this country. Paper folded on lower right corner. Photo identification researched by Ed Suguro.

1995.008.006